Fairfield Women’s Club holds Easter Bake Sale and Bazaar

The Fairfield Women’s Club held its annual Easter Bake Sale and Bazaar on Friday, March 29.

The event was a tremendous success for the organization, which sold nearly all of the 120 Easter baskets its members had assembled and set on tables inside the McElhinny House. The baskets included an assortment of candy, toys, bubbles, stuffed animals and more for young children.

The event also raised funds by selling ham balls, chicken casseroles, breads, brownies and other baked goods, as well as copies of the McElhinny House Cookbook.

The Easter Bazaar is one of five fundraisers the women’s club hosts every year. The money from the fundraisers goes toward maintaining the historic McElhinny House, which was built in the 1850s and is considered the town’s first “showplace.” It was built for pioneer merchant Robert McElhinny, who moved his family to town from Pennsylvania after purchasing land in Fairfield for $60 and hiring a carpenter to design a home of Greek revival architecture.

Robert McElhinny died in 1878, and the house remained in the family for another 69 years until it was acquired by the Fairfield Women’s Club in 1933, through a $10,000 bequest from the estate of McElhinny’s daughter, Elizabeth.

Donna Clark, head of the Fairfield Women’s Club’s garden club, said the organization is still looking for a caretaker for the facility.